


Teacher Woes

by Othalla



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (Or is it?), Gen, Pre-Fake Dating, Teacher Harry Potter, Trick or Treat: Treat, Yule Ball (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-06 15:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16389896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Othalla/pseuds/Othalla
Summary: The biggest problem with being a teacher, Harry reckoned, was that one never did quite manage to grow too old for student dances.





	Teacher Woes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mierke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/gifts).



“You have to be joking.”

Harry frowned down at the burgundy letter in his lap. Perhaps if he wished hard enough it’d catch fire, or at least vanish into thin air never to be seen again. Harry would be quite happy, never seeing it again.

But no, it stayed unfortunately real.

He closed his eyes and counted backwards from ten, trying to push away the headache he felt was on its way.

The Saturday evening he'd planned involved nothing more than a warm hearth, a big blanket, and a few cups of tea between friends. Nowhere did he write getting unfortunate mails from previously trusted sources. The school owls were definitely getting on his banned list. 

“Ginny,” he said finally, acknowledging the other person in the room that he’d been decidedly ignoring since the blasted school owl had come to visit him. “Would you mind terribly doing me a favour?” If he can’t get out of it (which he knows he can’t, he’s heard enough from Malfoy to know that McGonagall keeps her rein on her teachers short and firm on the matter of school events) he’s not going down alone.

“Of course not,” Ginny said without looking up from her knitting.

She’d been trying to learn for a while now, aiming to knit her mom a sweater for Christmas in the most glaring colours she could find. Her skills are… questionable, if Harry has to judge. (Which he doesn’t out loud, because he doesn’t have quite that big a death wish.)

“I like doing favours. It keeps people on their toes, wondering when and how I might cash them in. Quite entertaining, if you ask me.”

“Even if it involved teenagers dancing awkwardly to cheesy music? And pretending you’re definitely too ancient and clueless to notice that some enterprising soul definitely spiked the punch?” Harry asked her doubtfully.

Ginny blinks, her knitting needles clacking together one last time, and turned toward him with wide eyes.

“Harry Potter, are you asking me to be your _date_ to the Yule Dance?” she asked, mock scandalized and grinning wide enough to show all her pearly whites.

Harry grimaced. “Well, I’m not going alone, that’s for sure.” God knows that would make some of his students forget themselves and ask him for a dance, a prospect he did not find very enticing. No, that sort of business was just very, very awkward. “I need a meat shield. Someone to protect me from the wolves.”

Considering Ginny could probably benchpress him while hungover (and that she's rather stupidly handsome), Ginny makes for a pretty decent chaperone. If nothing else, she has the routine of chaperoning down at this point.

(It's not the first time Harry's asked her to, after all.)

“Aww, are the children scaring you again? Poor little teacher,” she said, and reached over the sitting table to pat him not-very consolingly on his cheek. God, but she was enjoying this.

Harry accepted it like the coward he was, shoulders slumping down against the backrest of his couch.

"Yes. They're very fearsome," he agreed, as straight faced he could be.

“Don’t worry, big scary Ginny will come protect your virtue. I’ll even flash my biceps at them if they get too frisky,” she said, and winked cheekily at him. “That should make even the ballsiest of kids pause and think twice.”

“I bet,” Harry said, because he didn't doubt it for a second. His students might be the stupidest (and smartest) group of teenagers he's ever had the misfortune of meeting, but even they would think twice before stepping between Ginny Weasly, world famous quidditch star and voted Most Likely to Punch You in the Face five out of her seven years attending Hogwarts, and her date. 


End file.
